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Rich Pauloo, PhD

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Foreign Language Skills

Conversational Spanish

Language Skills

R
SQL
Python
Bash
JS/HTML/CSS



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The source code is available at github.com/richpauloo/cv.

Last updated on 2021-04-14.

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Rich Pauloo, PhD

I’m a hydrogeologist and data scientist with a background in physical science (geology, fluid mechanics, statistical methods, optimization, geospatial science), computing (sensor networks, cloud computing, open source software development), and physics (mathematical and numerical modeling, contaminant transport).

I have coded workflows that automate real-time data streaming from hundreds of remote sensor networks; built dashboards and interactive data visualizations to bring clarity to datasets with millions of obervations; created 3D numerical physical simulation models of groundwater flow and contaminant transport; made animations to improve machine learning interpretability; built multiple R packages; won an AI for Earth Grant to create a web tool to communicate complex model results; and I’m currently writing R data science cirriculum.

Education

PhD, Hydrogeology

University of California Davis

Davis, CA

2020 - 2015

  • Published 5 scientific papers (3 first-author), see “Publications”.
  • Won ~$153,000 in national, compeitive grants and awards from NASA, Microsoft AI for Earth, AGU, and others (see “Grants and Awards”).

B.S., Integrative Biology (minor in Conflict Resolution)

University of California Berkeley

Berkeley, CA

2011 - 2006



Professional & Research Experience

Project Scientist

Larry Walker Associates

Berkeley, CA

present - 2020

  • Programmed automated ETL pipelines for ~180 real-time sensor networks and dashboards.
  • Project management and workplan development, stakeholder outreach and communication in diverse groups with often competing aims.
  • Ad hoc geostatistics, hydrologic modeling, remote sensing.

Data Engineer

UC Water

Davis, CA

2020 - 2018

Graduate Student Researcher

Fogg Lab

UC Davis

2020 - 2015

  • Process large hydrologic datasets, 3D numerical groundwater flow and contaminant transport models, & network optimization models.
  • Developed novel models of well failure, groundwater salinization, and contaminant transport in porous media.
  • Regularly use R, Python, Git, Bash, MODFLOW, RW3D, Paraview, Illustrator, AWS, Linux, ArcGIS, Envi, LaTeX.

Data Lab Researcher

Computational Institute for Geodynamics (CIG)

UC Davis

2019 - 2018



Teaching & Leadership Experience

Before pursuing my PhD, I spent 3 years teaching diverse audiences in environmental education. I worked in Yosemite, Thailand and the Marin Headlands, and honed skills in public speaking, interpersonal team development, group facilitation, and critical listening. Living with my coworkers in tight teams taught me patience and cooperation. During summers I guided expeditions in the wilderness and abroad with National Geographic.

Expedition Leader

National Geographic & Adventures Cross Country

Thailand

2016 - 2015

  • Coordinated all aspects of multi-week international travel.
  • Facilitated teambuilding, group dynamics, and cultural integration.

Site Manager & Educator/Guide

NatureBridge

Yosemite & the Marin Headlands, CA

2015 - 2013

  • Coordinated with Operations to run a 200-student, 60 employee campus, which involved frequent public speaking.
  • Lived and worked with a close team.
  • Trained in wilderness guiding and backcountry safety.
  • Served as primary liaison between the organization and clients.

Environmental Science Educator

San Mateo County Office of Education

La Honda, CA

2013 - 2012

  • Designed cirriculum & taught science to diverse students.
  • Worked and lived with a close team of educators.
  • Frequent improvisational public speaking to large audiences.



Grants and Awards

Microsoft AI for Earth (national)

$37,571

N/A

2020

AGU Outstanding Student Presentation (national)

$200 and free 2020 registration

N/A

2019

2019 California Water Data Challenge (statewide)

$1,500

N/A

2019

  • Created calwaterquality.com, a statewide data portal that integrates and visualizes massive water quality data sets, and auto-generates water quality reports for more than 2,000 California public water systems.
  • Blog post about the project summarizing my motivation.

NASA Data Visualization Competition (national)

$1,400

N/A

2018

2018 California Water Data Challenge (statewide)

$1,500

N/A

2018

  • Used large state databases to build and calibrate a predictive model of domestic well failure in California’s Central Valley.

NSF-GRFP Honorable Mention (national)

N/A

N/A

2016

NSF-IGERT in Climate Change, Water and Society (national)

$111,000

N/A

2015



Selected Publications, Posters, and Talks

Development of a remote sensing based method to estimate changes in groundwater storage

Water Resources Research (in review)

N/A

2020

  • Ahmed, A. & Pauloo, R. & Knight, R. & Melton, F.

Show me the Data

California Water Data Summit

Davis, CA

2019

  • Pauloo, R.

Hydraulic gradients modulate non-Fickian transport in heterogeneous porous media

American Geophysical Union

San Francisco, CA

2019

  • Pauloo, R. & Fogg, G.E. & Guo, Z. & Henri, C.V.

Anthropogenic Basin Closure and Groundwater Salinization

Chapman Conference on Aquifer Sustainability

Valencia, Spain

2019

  • Pauloo, R. & Fogg, G.E. & Guo, Z. & Harter, T.

Selected Data Science Writing

Race to the Bottom

Exploratory data analysis and science journalism California well construction trends.

N/A

2019

Text Analysis of the Mueller Report

Text mining and sentiment analysis.

N/A

2019

Installing the R kernel in Jupyter Lab

How-to guide visited ~2,000 times per month.

N/A

2018

Tidy Chi Squared stats in infer

N/A

N/A

2018

View all of my blog posts here.



Certifications

Wilderness First Responder

N/A

National Outdoor Leadership School

N/A

Software Carpentry Instructor

N/A

Software Carpentry

N/A